Systems and methods for collaborative money management

Abstract

Systems and methods for collaborative money management. In some embodiments, the system may allow for creation of a series of virtual and/or sub-accounts that may be shared with other users in the network according to a series of restrictions/rules that may be established by users of the system. Users may then decide, either unilaterally or after receiving a request from another user, to share a certain amount of money within an account with one or more other users, subject to rules that may be established, such as limits on the spending amount, allowed merchants, geographical restrictions, temporal restrictions, and the like. Once the transaction has been approved and takes place, any remaining funds may be automatically returned to the sharing user without requiring repayment or returning of remaining funds/change from the transaction.

1 . A method for collaborative money management between a plurality of users of a money management system, the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a transaction split request from a first user of a collaborative money management system, wherein the transaction split request is entered on a mobile application or a web-based application under control of the first user;   sending a transaction split request notification to a second user of the collaborative money management system, wherein the transaction split request comprises:
 a total cost of a transaction; and 
 a proposed split of the total cost of the transaction; 
   receiving a notification from the second user responsive to the transaction split request; and   upon determining that the second user has approved the transaction split request, automatically transferring funds between accounts of the first user and the second user in the collaborative money management system to accomplish the approved transaction split request.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising facilitating completion of the transaction. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the step of facilitating completion of the transaction takes place before the step of sending the transaction split request notification. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the step of facilitating completion of the transaction comprises receiving a transaction notification associated with a payment means, wherein the payment means is linked with a virtual account, and wherein the virtual account is linked with a financial institution account. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the payment means comprises a debit card linked with the virtual account. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of automatically transferring funds between accounts of the first user and the second user takes place automatically at the time of completion of the transaction. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transaction split involves more than two users of the collaborative money management system. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the step of automatically transferring funds between accounts comprises automatically transferring funds between accounts of each of the users involved in the transaction split to accomplish the approved transaction split request. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving incoming transaction data; and   automatically calculating split amounts based upon the approved transaction split request using the incoming transaction data.   
     
     
         10 . A method for collaborative money management between a plurality of users of a money management system, the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a request to share an account from a first user of a collaborative money management system;   receiving a response to the request to share from a second user of the collaborative money management system;   responsive to an acceptance of the request to share by the second user of the collaborative money management system, establishing a joint account under which the first user and the second user may fund and/or spend from the joint account;   establishing a set of rules under which each of the users of the joint account may fund and/or spend from the joint account;   receiving a request to authorize a transaction;   evaluating the set of rules to determine whether the transaction is authorized; and   upon determining that the request to authorize the transaction meets each rule in the set of rules:
 authorizing the transaction; and 
 automatically transferring funds between virtual accounts of at least the first user and the second user in accordance with the set of rules. 
   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the joint account comprises a primary account holder and one or more secondary account holders, and wherein the step of establishing a set of rules is performed using rules set by the primary account holder. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the joint account comprises a virtual account linked with a financial institution account. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the step of authorizing the transaction comprises transferring of funds to the joint account from the financial institution account. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the step of transferring of funds to the joint account from the financial institution account takes place at the time of the transaction. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the joint account comprises a company joint account, and wherein each of the users of the joint account are employees of the company. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the joint account comprises a virtual account associated with a particular company project. 
     
     
         17 . A system for collaborative money management, comprising:
 one or more processors;   a computer readable memory operably coupled with the one or more processors;   a transaction authorization module configured to receive a transaction split request from a first user of the collaborative money management system from a mobile application or a web-based application under control of the first user, wherein the transaction authorization module is configured to send a transaction split request notification to a second user of the collaborative money management system and approve or deny the transaction split request, wherein the transaction split request comprises:
 a total cost of a transaction; and 
 a proposed split of the total cost of the transaction; and 
   a transaction splitting module configured to, upon approval of the transaction split request, automatically transfer funds between accounts of the first user and the second user in the collaborative money management system to accomplish the approved transaction split request.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the system is configured to allow users to split transaction costs either before or after the transaction has taken place. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the system is configured to allow users to pre-approve a transaction split, and wherein the transaction splitting module is configured to automatically transfer funds between users of the collaborative money management system according to an approved transaction split at the time of the transaction. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the transaction splitting module is configured to automatically refund funds between accounts of the first user and the second user upon notification of a cancellation or refund of a transaction of an approved transaction split request.